Review

Pick of the paperback, June 15

JENN AND her husband Greg take the same holiday every year. The posh bit of
Mallorca. They drink a bit too much, swim and lie in the sun. “The
suggestion of sex hangs there...but she is heavy from food and drink and she
delicately removes his hand.” This year, Greg’s 15-year-old daughter Emma,
has brought her sulky boyfriend Nathan with her for the second week. Emma is
mercurial, an atmosphere-wrecker. Her disgust on finding Jenn topless by the
pool when she arrives sets the tone: “You look common.” Did Nathan see
Jenn’s breasts? Of course he did. And when Jenn meets him properly “he is
wearing a pair of plain blue swimming shorts, otherwise, he is naked...He is
shockingly pretty.”

What follows is predictable enough but Walsh does it perfectly, fixing Nathan
with the hot glare of a female gaze,